Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?
by Azurite
Summary: She's a total ditz. He's a champion DDR expert from 3000 miles away, who SOMEHOW has gotten stuck in her body. (Ch 5!)
1. Accidents do happen

Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?  
A _Dance Dance Revolution_ Fanfiction  
By: Azurite (but people call me Andi, Akachan, Mer, and Baka)  
http://azurite.rosedreams.org

Well, if you've gotten this far, then you are no doubt wondering one of these things:  
(1) WHAAAT?! Andi wrote a DDR fic!? What about all her *other* unfinished fics? Well you know the story about the thing that never goes away? Ever? Yeah, this is like that. I'd never be able to watch/play (ha ha) DDR again if I didn't write this. So here it is.  
(2) O.o How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, if you clicked on "DDR" in my profile, then you either knew what it meant, and wondered what the heck a poor dancer such as myself was doing with those three letters, or you were like "huh? Dark Dark Rain? Double Dark Rocks?" and just clicked out of curiosity. Well, poor soul, you have found your way to a piece known as a FANFICTION! It's about DDR. Ha. Ha.

**Notes and Schtuff:  
**(1) No, I can't DDR. I have terrible coordination. I can try, but I only embarass myself and my much-better-at-DDRing friends. My fingers are much faster than my feet anyway. -.- Of course, that doesn't help me when playing DanceManiaX any...  
(2) No, I don't own DDR-- any aspect of it. Konami owns DDR, and the individual artists responsible for the songs therein own them. I'm not making a profit off this... if anything, I'm giving MORE money to those companies by buying their games, and dumping token after token into the arcade machines to try and play. Key word being **try**.   
(3) Yes, I have written fanfiction before, but no, not DDR fanfiction. This is an original piece... it's fictional (duh. Hence the "fiction" part of fanfiction) and absolutely did NOT happen. I'm just sort of setting it where I am, since I know my area best. ^.~  
(4) Yes, I know *some* Japanese. So unless you're a native or have studied Japanese for over 10 years (ooh goody, someone on par with me!) then don't correct me. I may not know kanji all that well, but I know names and phrases like I know the English alphabet. -.- Don't even comment on that last one.

**Dedicates: **(because I'm a dork)  
Amber  
Mike  
Onii-chan  
Sean-chan  
and  
Will and Grace.  
  
And NOW, on with the story...

It had started out an ordinary enough day. Alexa Dirson got up at the ungodly hour of 6:45, rummaged through the mountain of clothes on the right side of her too-small twin bed, and came up with some semblance of a normal outfit. She'd blindly selected her too-big jeans with the stretchy knees, that, if worn with the proper shirt, almost looked like raver pants. Regardless of what shoes she wore, they always covered her toes, though she was never unlucky enough to trip over her own two feet-- yet.

It wasn't that Alexa -Alex, for short- was a clutz, she was just... uncoordinated. She was often praised for her speedy speaking and typing skills, but when it came to anything physical-- dancing, to be sure-- she was as slow as snails. She tried, no mistake about that, but for some reason, her eyes didn't seem to coordinate as well with her feet, or her hands. Her fingers, fine-- she could type at over 120 words per minute. But she couldn't dance dance revolution past most three step songs.

The brunette 17-year-old never let this get her down though, and kept on going to the arcade near the pier every Friday with her friends, when she had the money to. Her Friday nights were unoccupied since the start of the school year, when her schedule allowed for her to leave the campus at 2:15-- and she could go home, then meet her friends at the pier for a night of gaming. 

This was what she looked forward to, humming "If You Can Say Goodbye" as she finished off a crisp waffle drenched in table syrup, dumping the plate in the dish tray and heading back out to the dining room where her denim messenger bag rested on a chair. 

She just had time to pull her leather jacket over her shrunk-in-the-wash long sleeved shirt and shimmery plaid blouse before she hopped out the door, stumbling slightly down the stairs and the slope that led from her hill to the bus stop a block and a half away. Halfway there, she stopped to tie her shoelace-- which she hadn't noticed was untied, and just as she was getting up, she noticed the only bus leaving that half hour pull away from the block. 

"No wait! Come back!" Alexa got up and adjusted her bag, but by the time she reached the curb over a hundred meters away, she was winded-- and the bus was just disappearing over the crest in the horizons, many avenues away. Alexa sighed with disappointment. When she missed the bus that only meant one thing-- a long day.

"Just my luck." She kicked a loosened stone from the asphalt and marched to the bus stop, grumbling to herself the entire way. The sun was far too bright that morning, quite unusual for San Francisco weather, but tolerable all the same. It was because of this unusual coastal heat that she was being so light with her clothing, when she normally wore several layers of long-sleeved shirts and her wool coat. Well...

Alexa grinned to herself, flopping onto a ridged seat at the bus stop, not even paying attention to the the increasing number of cars blocking the street that her bus was supposed to come down. Cars flooded the boulevard lined with trees, angry drivers beeping at each other in odd intervals, yelling out their windows, then regretting it as the spray of sprinklers watering the grass splashed them cleanly on the face.

The teen was so absorbed in singing "Moonlight Shadow" for the umpteenth time since she'd gotten to the bus stop that she didn't even see the motorcycle come tearing down Park Presidio Boulevard, sidewinding a cherry red SUV, and then careening towards her spot at the bus stop.

Three thousand miles away, in the lower wards of Tokyo, Japan, a young man was being laid to rest. The pallbearers of his coffin were no older than eighteen years themselves, yet the situation made them appear much older. A tearful crowd of mourners was gathered around them, one a petit girl with long black hair and eyes hidden by a pair of oval-shaped sunglasses. Tears streamed from underneath them all the same, dark eyeliner dripping down the curve of her cheeks as her body trembled with sobs.

"Akio-kun... why?"

Her hands were trembling even as she laid a single white rose on his coffin, then stared, wide-eyed, through the tinted circle of her glasses, and dashed off into the fog. Not one of the mourners made to go after her-- poor Kumiko... to have lost her one true love the night after a simple argument... poor Akio, who had died because of something that he loved. 

His trophies would rust in the world above him. 

Alexa Dirson woke up groggily, and immediately slammed her arm on the table next to her, groping blindly for her glasses. When instead, her hand met the thick, rustling plastic of a bouquet, sending the flowers toppling to the floor, and then the clang of something attached to that bouqet slamming into an IV pole, she bolted upright. 

What she didn't expect was to be barraged by sounds immediately-- the beeping of something to her side, a slow, dismal drip-drip of an IV, and the simultaneous yell of about twelve of her friends storming into her room, yelling "ALEX!!"

"Gwah? How ... what ... who?"

"You're awake!" And suddenly Alexa was very aware of her left arm getting squished to her side, and the IV tube protrusively sticking out of her right arm's elbow.

"H-hi Andrea..." Alexa mumbled out. The overjoyed 15-year-old at her side, with shocking pink hair, was a friend that she'd met at the Pier Side Arcade, and went to a school a few miles away from Alexa's own coastal high school. They'd both hit it off quite well, despite having only known each other for some weeks, and only knowing as much about each other as they related to one another on Friday nights or online. 

"We got so worried about you when you didn't show up on Friday..." Andrea started, while smiling slightly at the crowd gathered around her bed. As it appeared, she was in a hospital room-- and had been, for quite some time, judging by the fact that her clothes were folded up on a nearby chair, and there was a good-sized pile of balloons and flowers littering the floor. 

Upon noticing the flowers, Alexa immediately sneezed, her allergies coming back along with her awareness. Her friends laughed at the cute display of Alexa wrinkling her nose, while she adjusted herself in the bed appropriately and sat up, staring at each of her friends confusedly. 

Besides Andrea, Alexa's friends Matthew, Jason, Scott, Jeremy, Vic, Gabrielle, and Whitney were there, their heights towering over the prone girl. She hadn't broken anything, since no part of her was in a cast, but she was sporting a bruised forehead covered with thick bandages. Alexa ran her fingers through her shorter bangs and grumbled slightly, feigning happiness over the situation by saying "Ah, it was about time I cut my bangs anyway."

"Hey, An, what day is it?" Alexa asked suddenly, remembering that Andrea had said they'd worried when she "hadn't shown up on Friday." Everything seemed awfully hazy to her, as if she wasn't supposed to be here. The hospital was a familiar place though, it was just that she'd never stayed more than few hours for regular checkups. This area was different than the usual rooms. And yet...

"Huh? Oh, it's Sunday."  
"SUNDAY!? I missed Bemani Night?"

"..." Collective sweatdrops appeared on the brows of all her friends, who nodded solemnly.  
"Don't you remember what happened, Al?" Matthew asked sitting on the side of the bed and taking Alexa's hand. Alexa stared at their joined fingers and grinned hugely at Andrea, while Jason behind Alexa was fuming. 

"Uh..." Everyone stared at Alexa, waiting for her to shed some light on why she'd been caught in an accident that had very nearly taken her life-- but instead just left her incredibly lucky. 

"...you don't remember a thing, do you, Alexa?" Vic groaned, narrowing his almond-shaped eyes behind his glasses.   
"Nope!" Alexa responded brightly.   
"But man, have I got one hell of a headache..."

"We should probably let you get some more rest. You've been out since Friday mornin', the doctors said, when you were brought in here. Some freak motorcycle accident... by all rights, you should have at least broken something, but..." Matthew explained, a combination perplexed and relieved expression on his handsome face. 

"Thank God for small miracles." Andrea finished with a smile, helping to usher everyone out of the room. She winked as she shoved the last of the crew -Matthew- out the door.

"Psst! He stayed here the whole time, Al." She grinned like a Cheshire Cat, "I think he's going to be telling you something soon." Alexa and Andrea both grinned hugely and giggled, and the younger girl turned to go as Alexa started to readjust herself in the slender bed. 

"Oh right... your mom should be coming soon... and Gabby, Whit, and I chipped in to get you this." Andrea grabbed something that looked like a foot-long poster tube from a tabletop, and marched back over to Alexa. When the confused girl peeked inside, three white roses looked back out at her, their buds held tightly closed by the shape of the cylinder. 

Suddenly, Alexa's hands went slack, and if it hadn't been for her knees propping up the tube, the roses would have clattered to the floor. 

Why did their scent smell so painfully familiar? Like dirt, rain, and the already faint smell of roses... mixed with tears?

Akio Kataoka rubbed his head groggily as he sat up, suddenly feeling the odd imbalance of the world around him. Despite rubbing his eyes frustratedly, there seemed to be no more light than there was a moment ago, and the air swirling around him was a chilling breeze that reminded him of the ocean at night. 

"Where the heck am I?" Akio mused, trying to stand up. What happened was his knee gave in, and he plopped right back down to where he'd been sitting, suddenly aware of the fact that whatever he'd been passed out on was soft, and a bit wet. Grass?

Faintly, there was the sound of rushing water nearby, muffled as if he were in some enclosed space with thick walls, apart from the rest of the world. 

Then the sound stopped, the blackness started to recede, and there was a faint haze. Akio stared at the white spot, trying to see if his vision was up to par. The speck became clearer and clearer, finally focusing into what looked like a wall with an unfamiliar poster on it. Then the whiteness splayed across his vision like a massive curtain, and everything turned white.

When Akio opened his eyes again, what felt like only a few moments later, he was in an unfamiliar place, and his head was throbbing, as if someone had knocked him clean across the head with something heavy. Once that knowledge settled in, Akio became frighteningly aware of something else-- he wasn't in his body at all-- but a GIRL'S!

* * *

Whee! What did you think of Part 1? It took me much longer than I wanted... and I may revise it. But this is just a first draft, and I want to get it out so I can satisfy my muse. Funny how she rules my life... 

Please let me know what you think... I have most of this plotted out already, so expect to see more soon (weekly, if I'm lucky). 

~Azurite

AIM: Meriellen5


	2. Voices in my Head

Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?  
Part 2: Voices in my Head  
A _Dance Dance Revolution_ Fanfiction  
By: Azurite (but people call me Andi, Akachan, Mer, and Baka)  
http://azurite.rosedreams.org

Well, if you've gotten this far, then you are no doubt wondering one of these things:  
(1) WHAAAT?! Andi wrote a DDR fic!? What about all her *other* unfinished fics? Well you know the story about the thing that never goes away? Ever? Yeah, this is like that. I'd never be able to watch/play (ha ha) DDR again if I didn't write this. So here it is.  
(2) O.o How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, if you clicked on "DDR" in my profile, then you either knew what it meant, and wondered what the heck a poor dancer such as myself was doing with those three letters, or you were like "huh? Dark Dark Rain? Double Dark Rocks?" and just clicked out of curiosity. Well, poor soul, you have found your way to a piece known as a FANFICTION! It's about DDR. Ha. Ha.

**Notes and Schtuff:  
**(1) No, I can't DDR. I have terrible coordination. I can try, but I only embarass myself and my much-better-at-DDRing friends. My fingers are much faster than my feet anyway. -.- Of course, that doesn't help me when playing DanceManiaX any...  
(2) No, I don't own DDR-- any aspect of it. Konami owns DDR, and the individual artists responsible for the songs therein own them. I'm not making a profit off this... if anything, I'm giving MORE money to those companies by buying their games, and dumping token after token into the arcade machines to try and play. Key word being **try**.   
(3) Yes, I have written fanfiction before, but no, not DDR fanfiction. This is an original piece... it's fictional (duh. Hence the "fiction" part of fanfiction) and absolutely did NOT happen. I'm just sort of setting it where I am, since I know my area best. ^.~  
(4) Yes, I know *some* Japanese. So unless you're a native or have studied Japanese for over 10 years (ooh goody, someone on par with me!) then don't correct me. I may not know kanji all that well, but I know names and phrases like I know the English alphabet. -.- Don't even comment on that last one.

**Dedicates: **(because I'm a dork)  
Amber  
Mike  
Onii-chan  
Sean-chan  
Fred  
Psycho Joe  
Jimmy  
Joemi   
and  
Will and Grace.  
  


* * *

**What happened last time:**

Alexa Dirson is your average 17-year-old -- except she talks to herself, and can't DDR to save her life. AND, her life was just put in danger when, by simply waiting for a bus, she got hit by a speeding motorcycle-- yet got away mostly unscathed. Her friends are glad to have her back in the realm of the conscious, but when Alexa decides to nap shortly after awakening *she* doesn't wake up in her right mind! Instead, the late DDR champion from Tokyo, Japan, Akio Kataoka finds himself in her body... WHAAA??

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

With a female voice, Akio Kataoka's scream was even louder than he would have expected, but that didn't change the fact that *he* was in a girl's body. 

Tumbling out of the standard hospital bed and tripping over the blankets to a sink with a mirror above it, he stared at his new reflection. Rather than his own face staring back at him, there was that of a pretty gaijin girl-- probably a year or so younger than him-- and with short, cropped brown hair. 

His own fright radiated through her expression, her green eyes as wide as saucers as he stared at his reflection, touching his face, his hair... Absently, Akio's fingers ran over his newfound form-- and he turned a flaming scarlet when they reached what were most definitely soft, round breasts. 

"Miss Dirson?" A voice chimed, and Akio jumped a good foot and a half in the air, eeping loudly and dashing back to the hospital bed. Only the cool breeze that came with this scampering motion gave Akio the sudden awareness that he -er, she- was only clad in a paper-thin hospital gown, and little else. 

The voice that had spoken was that of a female nurse, long hair tied in a simple ponytail to the side of her white coat. She held a clipboard in one hand, a thermometer resting on top of it, and she approached Akio, who was curled up against the headboard in trepidation. This was all some _crazy_ nightmare... he wasn't here... he wasn't FEMALE... 

"Uh, Miss Dirson, I'll need you to lean forward so I can take your temperature." The nurse smiled gently, and leaned forward towards Akio again, who was so stupefied about his-- again, *her*-- predicament --not just being female, but also understanding English, and not feeling any immediate pain, despite being in a hospital-- that he sat still, and within a moment, the nurse had taken his temperature and smiled.

"Oh good, a healthy 98.1 degrees. It's good to see you awake, Miss Dirson. We'll get some food in here as soon as we can... your mother's downstairs signing some release forms..." The nurse prattled, adjusting the blankets and disconnecting the IV from Akio's arm. 

"Uh..." Akio began, hearing his -or whoever's body he was in- new voice for the first time in normal speech. "How did I get here?"

The words didn't feel foriegn on his lips. He spoke them perfectly, with no trace of an accent. Yet the voice was undeniably female, with an almost sing-song quality to it that there could be no mistake... the words uttered came from *his* mouth! Or at least he thought it was his... what had happened?

"Oh! Well... you were brought here..." The nurse picked up her clipboard again and scanned it briefly, no doubt trying to decipher the illegible doctor's handwriting, "Friday morning, at around 7:48am. Injured in a traffic accident, minor injury to the head. Nothing broken."

"...traffic... accident?"

"Yes, it seems that that morning there was a strange jam on Park Presidio Boulevard all the way from the bridge to where your accident occurred at Balboa... and a speeding motorcycle hit the bus stop where you were sitting."

"AND I'M ALIVE?!" Akio stared at the nurse in shock, wondering how he could have survived such an accident. Whoever this girl whose body he was currently occupying -as strange as that thought sounded- she sure was tough. 

"Well..." The nurse giggled, "Yes."

"You may want to sort through your things that your friends left... staying here over the course of the past three days has given you quite a load to take home with you tomorrow." The nurse grinned and stepped outside, gently closing the door as she left, staring at the clipboard.

Akio took this moment to step lightly out of bed, and look out the window on the far side of the room. His eyes met with an unfamiliar slope of houses, fluffy, yellow-flowered trees lining the street, and a few cars zipping down the road. It suddenly occurred to him that, besides the obvious signs of a gaijin nurse (and the girl whose body he was IN) that the CARS were going in the wrong direction.

Neither he -rather, she- or the nurse had had accents, so where was he?

"America?" Akio mumbled, staring at the room. It was then that his eyes caught on the poster he'd first seen when coming to. 

"SAN FRANCISCO!?"

* * *

"Uggh... Where the heck am...I...?" Alexa Dirson looked around a place that was most *definitely* not her bedroom, and certainly not the hospital room she'd been in when she'd awoken from her three-day coma, after the accident she couldn't remember. 

Rather, it was a dark place, with the faint sound of rushing water at the edge of her hearing. There was a patch of something soft and somewhat wet that she sat upon, and the faint blur of light in the distance. If she squinted her eyes enough, it almost seemed like the hospital room...

Alexa stood up on wobbling feet, grasping in the dark for anything with which she might catch her balance. However, nothing met her outstretched fingertips, and she instead collapsed back onto the wet again. When she didn't feel immediately muddy, she realized that she was wearing the same outfit she'd chosen the day of the accident-- Friday. She couldn't remember the accident itself too well, but she did remember haphazardly choosing an outfit, then being so satisfied with it, that she felt more confident than she had in a long time.

"Matt," she'd thought, "Matt will love this outfit."

"Ugh," Alexa groaned, patting her rear in distaste, "Matt will think I pissed my pants." She stood up, only to be jolted to the side again, and she fell back to the sopping ground with a "Woooaaah!"

Alexa sat, groaning at her current predicament, the strangeness of the situation, and feeling nauseous from the falling. 

"Am I on a boat or something? Geez, this place is hella dank..." Alexa wrinkled her nose, faintly catching the smell of rot, before she squinted again at the source of light in the distance. A porthole, maybe? 

Hah, what a trip. Maybe she'd been kidnapped and was being brought to China on a freighter?

"Right. And James Bond will come bursting through that doorway over there any second now." Alexa spoke to no one in particular, grouching as she thumbed towards the endless expanse of darkness. She almost found herself staring at the point she'd named "the doorway," half believing, especially with her recent string of "luck" that such a thing would happen. Actually, anything that happened to Alexa was always contrary to her current line of thought-- so that if anyone *did* come bursting through any door in the dark, it'd probably be a twenty-eyed octopus with an appetite for human girls. 

Alexa sighed loudly, doing her best to ignore the seeping feeling of wet crawling through her pants. It felt like she'd just fallen into a pool, or a very icky part of her high school's football field. The very thought made her shudder all over, and she sat as still as possible, gathering her arms into her chest and trying to stay warm, and stay calm. 

"Patience is a virtue," Alexa murmured, faking a Zen-like state as she sat. Oddly enough, the sound of the rushing water receded from her hearing, and instead, she heard a voice:

"SAN FRANCISCO!?" 

It was most definitely not her OWN voice.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Alexa immediately stiffened, rising to her feet. The wet feeling had vanished completely, though Alexa wouldn't have noticed anyway-- her attention was soley focused on the source of the voice. It seemed to be coming from everywhere... but nowhere, all at the same time. It was quite perplexing. 

"...who?" The same male voice repeated. There seemed to be a slight accent to it, and Alexa almost swore that she'd heard it before. But she couldn't place when. Perhaps the accident had affected her memory?

"Uh... where are you?" Alexa asked, looking about her frantically. She backed towards the light, glad for her sneakers with enough traction to keep her from slipping. Even as she edged away from her self-named "door," the ground grew more solid behind her feet, thickening and flattening to level stone. 

"I'm... I'm in San Francisco, it seems." 

Alexa rolled her eyes. Well, _that_ was helpful. Wasn't _she_ in San Francisco, too? Or...?

"Look, who the hell are you?" Alexa snapped, losing her temper. Whoever it was sounded confused, and if this person wasn't stuck in the same situation as she --trapped in a foriegn place, not knowing how or why she got there-- then they had no right to be so slow and confusing to her. She just wanted to get out of this darkness, and go home!

"...The name's Kataoka. Akio Kataoka." 

Alexa suddenly felt her throat constrict; that was a Japanese name. It wasn't that she'd had heard the name before; the boy's name was just as unfamiliar to him as his name. But the manner in which he'd said it implied that he wasn't speaking English. She was just *hearing* it that way, if it was at all possible.

"Just great, I'm living in a Star Trek moment..." Alexa hissed under her breath, snapping her gaze around to try and pinpoint a source to Akio's vioce.

"'Star Trek?' What's that?" Akio asked, the confusion easily clear in his voice. 

Alexa nearly toppled over when the world took a sudden shift, and suddenly the darkness receded to a gray. There was a *shuk shukking* sound, as if someone had just tossed open curtains or blinds.

"What the _hell_...?" Alexa growled, staring at the now-growing point of light, once a haze, in the distance. It wasn't a porthole, as she'd originally suspected, but it was a window of some sort. Yet the things in there seemed familiar, while the world around her produced a sense of fear, if anything else. 

Alexa shivered as an unexpected sensation rippled through her, like goosebumps from the cold-- irritation. 

"You needn't swear, you know." Akio's voice came coldly, and Alexa seemed taken aback.

"Well, _excuse_ me! I don't know who the heck you are, or where the heck I am, and I just want to go home!" Alexa's voice suddenly slipped into a sob on the last syllable. What if she never saw her friends again? Her mother... or... 

Matthew's face flashed across her vision for a moment, and Alexa choked to herself, overwhelmed with sadness.

"...O...Oi, you... you don't have to cry..." Akio's voice came, somewhat softer and more broken than before.

"I CAN CRY IF I WANT TO YOU JERK!" Alexa shouted, and then everything went white.

* * *

"Huh...?" Alexa found herself lying face up on the hospital bed, surrounded by the same balloons and flowers as before. Even the tube of white roses that Andrea, Matt, and Whit had chipped in to get for her was still lying on the floor. 

Slowly sliding her legs off the bed and getting up, she picked up the tube, sniffing the roses once before setting them aside. She dared to glance into the mirror above the sink, and was relieved to see everything normal and in place.

Whatever she'd been imagining-- about a place of darkness, filled with white and gray haze... and running water... well, it just had to be a dream. But...

* * *

The next few days passed by with relative ease-- Alexa didn't dream of the realm of darkness anymore, and before she knew it, the name Akio Kataoka had completely slipped her mind. It was Friday afternoon before she even thought about what had happened last weekend at all. 

"Hey, Al, check this out!" Andrea brought out two wrinkled pieces of 8.5" by 11" paper, obviously printed from someone's laserjet. There was a faint picture that was quite pixellated, bright white stripes passing through the image's top and middle sections. But it appeared to be a person-- a smiling boy, in fact, who was Japanese.

At the top of the page was a very familiar logo-- that of DDRNews.Net, a site that Alexa was prone to frequent for the latest info on DDR, especially when it came to new mixes, songs, and codes. She was always interested in those little details, even if she never had the confidence to get up on the stage and dance for herself.

The few time she'd tried, she'd only embarassed herself, and swore she'd practice in private before ever trying to play again. It wasn't as if she'd said she was any good when she played in public, but there _had_ been a lot of expert players around, and Alexa had ended up getting off the platform cherry red, ashamed of the bright red, blood E flashing on the screen. 

_Never again_, she swore. _Never._

"'Japanese Dance Dance Revolution expert killed in fatal hit-and-run'? Where was this?" Alexa asked, looking up at her pink-haired friend. Andrea grabbed the paper again, scanning it rapidly. The two of them had met earlier in the day at the Lowes Theaters, and were now waiting for the F train to take them to the Pier. 

Alexa rolled her eyes. It was just like Andrea to make some news big and then not know anything about it. But it was these little details that fascinated Alexa so-- it was why she wanted to be a journalist. Of course, that was a separate hobby altogether from DDR, and since Alexa knew she had to work on her social skills, she figured learning to dance --DDR or otherwise-- was a good start. She'd made so many friends since she'd started coming to the Arcade... it was wonderful.

"Tokyo," Andrea began, her eyes still glued to the paper. A green F-train was pulling up beside them, it's quadruple-fold doors squeaking open. Alexa turned to get on, and slammed her head on the door with a yelp.

"Ow..." She and Andrea got on the bus, Andrea stepping up the high rises without so much as lifting her eyes. She flashed the driver her pass, as did Alexa, but Alexa's other hand was plastered to her forehead. 

_Great. Just great. Now I'm sure that Matt will see me with this softball sized LUMP on my head and know once and for all what a DITZ I am..._

Alexa frowned, trying to be more optimistic. Running her fingers over her newest wound, she realized there wasn't much of a bump at all-- but it still stung like hell. And as childish a thought as it was, she half-wished that Matt was there to kiss the "booboo away." 

_Feh. How ridiculous_.

At least now she was keeping her thoughts to herself, instead of mumbling aloud, and coming off as a crazy person. 

"...Earth to Alex?" Andrea's voice rang in Alexa's ears, and she shook her head out of her stupor. Dammit, she'd been doing it _again_! Her mind wandering like that was nothing new, but it seemed to happen more often, for longer periods, after the accident. Half-afraid, Alexa thought she should tell her mother, but she knew she'd just be dragged back to the doctor's office for a long and uncomfortable examination-- and probably tons of nasty pills to take, and a stupidly insensitive shrink to see.

"Huh?" Alexa queried of her friend intelligently. Andrea rolled her eyes and snickered in response, flicking out the paper so that the folds were straightened, "'An eighteen year old Dance Dance Revolution Expert in Tokyo, Japan, was brutally killed after a hit-and-run on September 13th, 2002. Akio Kataoka was the receipent of such prestigious awards as the Bemani B.E.A.T, and the Konami Golden Koin.' Wow, Al, isn't that weird... this guy was in a hit-and-run only two weeks before you..."

Alexa had blanched. 

_That... that **name**! _

"Guess... Friday the 13th just wasn't his day, huh?" Alexa mumbled, still wracking her brain for why the name sounded so familiar. A ping seemed to echoe throughout her ears, and a mini-world, as if her vision were suddenly enclosed in a snow-dome, appeared before her eyes.

Darkness everywhere, and a white, patchy haze in the distance... the smell of rot, and the cool feeling of wetness all around...

"Yeah, but I wonder if it was the 13th for him that day, too... I mean, you know Tokyo's like, 14 hours ahead of us, they might have converted it... but who'd go to all that trouble..." Andrea continued to mumble.

"Hey, lemme see that picture." Alexa grabbed the paper from her friend quickly, ignoring her friend's yelp as the paper sliced across one finger and made a tiny cut. Hurt, Andrea sucked on her finger, giving her patented death glare. However, it went unnoticed to the brunette, as she stared intently at the paper, her face paling even more.

"H-Hey... girl, you look like a ghost. I mean it this time. What's wrong? You... you didn't _know_ that guy, did you?" Andrea was almost afraid of the answer, setting one hand on Alexa's shoulder just as the train lurched forward, and the pink-haired teen pitched into her best friend like sardines in a can. 

"I..." Alexa trailed off. No, this was _impossible_. Downright, flat out, _impossible..._ right? 

She looked up at her friend, worry creasing her face. 

"I don't know." 

* * *

"KUMIKO! Bring the chairs in here, please!" 

The seventeen year-old Japanese girl barely had enough time to finish tying up her shoulder-length ponytail before she hoisted the four oak chairs up in her arms once more. This is what she got for being an only child.

It was one thing to be part of a Japanese family that was very cultural-- but far from traditional. Her father had no problem with letting Kumiko work on the engine of his car, or carry four twenty-pound-each oak chairs up a flight of stairs. 

But no, Kumiko wasn't complaining-- she was grinning and bearing it, as was her habit of late. She couldn't manage anything else nowadays. Ever since... 

But in just thinking about Akio, Kumiko's grip on the chairs slacked, and she nearly dropped the lot of them on the last stair. Luckily, she caught herself just in time, and with an adrenaline surge, lifted the last of the chairs over the carpeted stairway. She whispered a silent prayer of thanks to her late boyfriend, and finished bringing the chairs into her family's new apartment.

Overlooking the selfsame ocean that she and her family had just crossed not less than a week ago, Kumiko Nikado now resided in a large two-bedroom apartment near Ocean Beach. The family had just moved here, and had yet to truly get familiarized with the city and its people, but they had all been to San Francisco for leisure, visting relatives, or just checking out the sites. When Mr. Nikado's business offered him a transfer to the City by the Bay, he readily accepted. Mrs. Nikado wasn't horribly pleased, but when she found out that her aunt, already short on years, was living in the city, she agreed and believed it best.

The decision was not as easy for Kumiko, whose life had just begun to blossom in Tokyo. Living in one of the more populated and expensive cities on the planet had given her a world of opportunities, and one of which was the chance to meet the handsome and talented Akio Kataoka. He was only a few months older than her, but everything seemed to fall in place when they met.

Kumiko had been sure that Akio was going to propose to her once they graduated high school. But he never got the chance. 

The flood of painful memories caused the young woman to freeze in place. She'd left him -body and soul- behind. Maybe it was the right thing to do. Maybe it was time to move on. 

Kumiko sighed, sitting down on one of the chairs and beginning to unpack things from the boxes littered in the living room. She unwrapped several glasses and plates wrapped in newspaper, setting the unfolded paper to the side. She noticed after unwrapping a blue glass vase that a brand new newspaper, titled _The Chronicle_ was open to the 'Datebook' section. It wasn't so much the pink-colored paper that caught the girl's eye as the large ad taking up an entire third of the page:

A large surfboard decorated with the word 'Pier Side Arcade' was emblazoned in large, funky English letters. Kumiko had no trouble reading the characters, as she'd taken English for all three years of high school, and it had been a required class back in junior high. Having relatives in the States to write to had only made it easier, though Kumiko still carried a thick accent when she spoke. 

"Bemani Night now every Friday Night at the Pier Side Arcade, located in the rear of Pier 39. All Bemani games half off, and a raffle for up to 70 tokens for freestyle... DDRing..." 

Kumiko mumbled out the last words. DDRing. Akio had been champion. He'd danced for himself, then danced for her. Then... then...

_Oh Akio... why... why did you have to leave me alone like this?_

With her parents busy unpacking in their own bedroom, there was no one present to hear Kumiko's sobs.

* * *

This one was much longer! I hope you enjoyed it... don't worry, DDR will make its apperance soon! Soon every chapter should take place (and may be posted the day after) every Friday night! I'm hinting now at the romance with Akio/Kumiko and Matt/Alexa, but there will be other secondary romances, too. 

Please let me know what you think... I have most of this plotted out already, so expect to see more soon (weekly, if I'm lucky). 

~Azurite

AIM: Meriellen5


	3. Kumiko and Alexa

Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?  
Part 3: Kumiko and Alexa  
A _Dance Dance Revolution_ Fanfiction  
By: Azurite (but people call me Andi, Akachan, Mer, and Baka)  
http://azurite.rosedreams.org

Well, if you've gotten this far, then you are no doubt wondering one of these things:  
(1) WHAAAT?! Andi wrote a DDR fic!? What about all her *other* unfinished fics? Well you know the story about the thing that never goes away? Ever? Yeah, this is like that. I'd never be able to watch/play (ha ha) DDR again if I didn't write this. So here it is.  
(2) O.o How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, if you clicked on "DDR" in my profile, then you either knew what it meant, and wondered what the heck a poor dancer such as myself was doing with those three letters, or you were like "huh? Dark Dark Rain? Double Dark Rocks?" and just clicked out of curiosity. Well, poor soul, you have found your way to a piece known as a FANFICTION! It's about DDR. Ha. Ha.

**Notes and Schtuff:  
**(1) No, I can't DDR. I have terrible coordination. I can try, but I only embarass myself and my much-better-at-DDRing friends. My fingers are much faster than my feet anyway. -.- Of course, that doesn't help me when playing DanceManiaX any...  
(2) No, I don't own DDR-- any aspect of it. Konami owns DDR, and the individual artists responsible for the songs therein own them. I'm not making a profit off this... if anything, I'm giving MORE money to those companies by buying their games, and dumping token after token into the arcade machines to try and play. Key word being **try**.   
(3) Yes, I have written fanfiction before, but no, not DDR fanfiction. This is an original piece... it's fictional (duh. Hence the "fiction" part of fanfiction) and absolutely did NOT happen. I'm just sort of setting it where I am, since I know my area best. ^.~  
(4) Yes, I know *some* Japanese. So unless you're a native or have studied Japanese for over 10 years (ooh goody, someone on par with me!) then don't correct me. I may not know kanji all that well, but I know names and phrases like I know the English alphabet. -.- Don't even comment on that last one.

**Dedicates: **(because I'm a dork)  
Amber (waaai, her hair's hella pretty when it's natural colored too!)  
Onii-chan (irrational exuberance, anyone? Everyone say wee!)  
Sean-chan (*bounce bounce*)  
Mike (waaaaaaaai! *pounce!*)  
Fred  
Joey (yellow jacket dude)  
Psycho Joe  
Chris  
and  
Will (YOU RULE, DUDE!) and Grace.  


* * *

**What happened last time:**

Akio Kataoka was your normal 18-year-old Japanese high schooler-- until he was killed in a hit-and-run. His girlfriend, Kumiko, mourned for him, but her family was forced to move to San Francisco, California, where she's doing her best to forget her true love...

The only problem is, there's a girl there in San Francisco-- Kumiko doesn't know her yet, but her name's Alexa Dirson. She sucks at DDR, but tries all the same. But one day while waiting at the bus stop, she gets injured in a traffic accident, and when she wakes up, gets a funny feeling... and loses conscious at the hospital after friends visit. When "she" regains consciousness, it isn't Alexa in control, but Akio!

That's right, the deceased Akio is apparently in Alexa's body! But why? And how? 

What's more, Alexa just found out that Akio is dead! So maybe she _didn't_ imagine that voice in her head... 

And what about Kumiko?!

* * *

"You honestly think you've _seen_ this guy before?" The pink-haired Andrea gaped at her pale-faced friend in wonderment. Sure, Alexa'd been acting odd all day... but wasn't she always like that? Sort of...? Besides, since the accident, wasn't her older friend entitled to space out a bit more often? Or perhaps she was just thinking about Matt...

"I..." Alexa made a face, contorting her lips and eyebrows into a frustrated-yet-cute expression. She didn't understand the multitude of thoughts racing through her head, and the jolting of the F-line streetcar wasn't helping much. This was the second time she'd bumped her head into the pole...

"Well, try not to think about it. I bet you just heard his name somewhere or something. Come on!" And with that, Andrea dragged Alexa -quite literally- off the train, since it was their stop. 

* * *

Kumiko stared at the paper clipping in her hands, then back up at the sign. The bright yellow surfboard decorated with bubble-shaped letters reading 'Pier Side Arcade' was exactly the same as in the advertisement. 

_Why am I here? It's not like I... it's not like..._

Kumiko had never DDRed. She had always been interested in dance, which is what she supposed drew her to Akio in the first place. Yet her strength lay in her academic knowledge-- she was an excellent student, and had always been in the top of her class. Akio had first started asking Kumiko for help -help which later turned into dates- for math, then in English. His grades improved, and his affection for Kumiko grew.

And then...

The young Japanese girl shook her head rapidly to rid herself of these thoughts. 

_Get over it, girl! He... Akio's gone. And it's just an arcade. Another tourist trap that you're going to have to get to know._

How this excuse passd as plausible in Kumiko's mind, she didn't know, upon later recollection. But it worked for the moment, and so, with her head held high, Kumiko strode into the Pier Side arcade, anxiously looking for the flashing Bemani games she knew too well.

Almost immediately, she noticed the difference in the atmosphere-- as opposed to the barely-crowded, semi-quiet outside of the pier, the arcade was already thronging with people, even now, an entire half hour before the 'Bemani Night' advertised in the paper was scheduled to begin. Games were crammed against every nook and cranny, people sitting against walls, in race-game chairs, and leaning against the hand-holds of the Dance Dance Revolution 7th Mix game at the forefront of the arcade.

Barely a few feet into the darkened area, Kumiko had to step aside as two hyperactive youngsters bounded past her, laughing as they ran out to the carousel. Kumiko looked back at them, annoyance not even crasing her features. Instead, a gentle smile. She wished she could live like that-- see everything as fun. Oh, to be a child once again...

Kumiko walked into the depths of the arcade, standing only a few feet from the MAX 2 machine as an American boy and girl -him with cropped brown hair streaked with blonde, and her with bright blonde hair and a tight-fitting shirt- danced on Heavy to "It's Raining Men." Kumiko suppressed a giggle at the lyrics, then wandered on-- there was an unused BeatMania III 7th mix append machine to her left, squished between a pole and a change machine, at which a boy with spiky hair and a lip piercing -shaped like a bright green pike- was feeding dollar after dollar into the device. 

The crowd was beginning to get a bit oppressive, as a short, young boy with gelled hair and glasses bumped into Kumiko by accident. 

"Oh, sorry." He apologized, grinning. Kumiko found herself nodding dumbly, rather than replying-- it was amazing how his smile was so simple, yet so sweet. How tragic. It reminded her of Akio.

Kumiko weaved her way through the machines, shielding her eyes from the bright, flashing lights and the people filing in and out of their segregated clumps in the arcade's "zones." In the back, another DDR machine was cycling on its normal "Demo" mode, abandoned for reasons unknown to the Japanese girl. She wondered if anyone played this machine at all, or if it was like one of the others in Japan-- neglected because a step was broken, or because certain songs hadn't yet been unlocked. 

Somehow, Kumiko thought with a bit of resignation, things weren't as fun when someone else did everything for you. Wouldn't it be a more plesant feeling to keep trying and playing, and unlock the songs yourself?

Perhaps the Americans thought differently when playing. To them, maybe, it was exercise, or simply a fun way to waste time. 

_And money._ Kumiko stared at the 6 tokens game label, her eyes bugged out. In Tokyo's KonamiLand, DDR was only 100 yen! Here, it was nearly twice that amount! However, Kumiko soon backed away from the machine, as two young women came in through the arcade's back entrance, babbling excitedly.

One had short, cropped brown hair, while the other had a shock of bright pink hair, which reminded Kumiko of the many cosplayers she'd seen on the streets of Tokyo from time to time. While the sight wasn't overly common in Japan, it was common enough not to be a total surprise to the girl here in San Francisco. 

"...do Waka Laka, Nori Nori... and www.blonde girl!" The pink-haired girl was finishing as she fished around in her pocket for some tokens. Predictably, she came up empty, and rummaged through her wallet to give the other girl a bill. 

"I will _not_ do anything if Matt watches!" The brown girl retorted, her face flaming red. She looked young, but there was a wiseness in her dark eyes that Kumiko could sense immediately. Their eyes hadn't met yet, and all was for the better. Kumiko was content just watching. It was silly enough that she was even here in the first place, considering all the painful reminders she'd gotten -and no doubt would continue to get- about Akio.

_If only I'd said I was sorry..._

Shaking her head abruptly, Kumiko ridded herself of that depressing thought, and watched from the corner, pretending to be examining the SuperScope game rather than the players getting on the stage. 

"It's a good thing you have the handicap of the messed arrows, 'cuz I know I'd never pass these songs otherwise."

"Oh please! You said you got AAs on them on Stepmania!" The pink-haired vixen countered, sliding a token into the machine. The lights on either side of the platforms came alive with color, flashing purple and gold, while a nearby fan started to hum on the floor. 

"Yeah, but that's Stepmania! My fingers are faster than my feet, you know!" The girl whined, adding a sigh at the end of her brief rant. 

"Uh-huh, sure. Don't even bother to say that your foot-eye coordination or whatever sucks, because I saw you pass before!"

The brunette's face flamed crimson as she stepped onto the left side of the platform, while the pink-haired girl inserted the last of the three tokens required. It was then that Kumiko realized why the crowds were so thick on a Friday-- the 'Bemani Night' advertised reduced the cost of all the BeatMania games by half!

_Ohh..._ Kumiko thought to herself in silent understanding. Almost involuntarily, the thought came: _Akio would have been here every Friday if..._

**If. **If he'd lived. 

_D-Damn it! Why do I keep thinking of him? Why can't I just forget--_

Kumiko's thoughts were abruptly cut off as the two girls started dancing rapidly to Waka Laka, the first song in their three stages. The first girl, the brunette dancing on the left, was not as coordinated as her bright-haired friend, but she had chosen to up the speed of the song, though it was already on Light mode. She moved stiffly, but still managed a hi combo of 78 by the end. Yet that wasn't what had drawn Kumiko's thoughts away from Akio.

"Come on, you can do it!" A voice called from the water-scooter racing game on the left of the 7th mix machine. A tall, handsome American boy sat there, elbows on his knees, which were bare since he wore shorts. Kumiko blushed slightly at being caught admiring the young man, then quickly turned her gaze back to the stage. 

If the brunette had been stiff before, she was as rigid as a board now, and as she turned around to face the source of the voice, her face deepened from crimson to a deep scarlet. It was obvius to Kumiko that this young man was the 'Matt' fellow that the two girls had been discussing earlier, and the one for whom the brunette had obvious affections. 

"Come on, second stage is starting, Al!" The pink-haired girl chastised her friend. 

"This is all your fault, Andrea! I am _so_ going to get you for this!" 'Al' hissed under her breath. Her face was still red, but she concentrated on the screen, where the familiar background and starting intro of Nori Nori began to play. Behind her, Matt just laughed jovially, winking at Andrea. 

To Kumiko's surprise -and evidently, to Matt's as well- this 'Al' character was much better on this second stage than on the first. In fact, she seemed much more relaxed and focused than before, loosely and subltley incorporating what Kumiko recognized as freestyle moves. She wasn't sure how they did things like that in the States, but the moves that this girl was weaving into her steps were familiar enough to Kumiko for her to pinpoint them. She even knew their names...

_No way..._

The thought suddenly occurred to Kumiko. The girl had drawn her attention away from the depressing throughts of Akio. She was using moves that only Akio had done before -3000 miles away, in a KonamiLand tournament over a month and a half ago. Yet... something was vaguely familiar about all this, as if a twisted veil of deja vu had encompassed the arcade, and all present were involved.

_But... it's impossible! I wasn't here a month ago, and these people are nothing like my friends back in Japan!_

Yet when 'Al' finished off the song with a flourish, shaking her head in wonderment at the AA that appeared blinking on the screen -all while Andrea and Matt gaped- her eyes met with Kumiko's-- and the two of them gasped in astonishment. 

* * *

Ooh! What's going to happen next? Where is Akio? What will Kumiko do? What about Alexa, and the news Andrea brought to her of the death of Akio Kataoka, DDR champion? What of MATT!? ^^ Find out in the next chapter.

I know I know, not much DDRness in here. Well, sorta. But just wait-- more songs, more moves... I have to get all the terminology down.

REVIEW PLEASE~! *huggles*

~Azurite


	4. Freestyle My Heart

Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?   
Part 4: Freestyle My Heart  
Version 2.0  
A _Dance Dance Revolution_ Fanfiction   
By: Azurite (but people call me Andi, Akachan, Mer, and Baka)  
http://azurite.rosedreams.org 

Well, if you've gotten this far, then you are no doubt wondering one of these things:   
(1) WHAAAT?! Andi wrote a DDR fic!? What about all her *other* unfinished fics? Well you know the story about the thing that never goes away? Ever? Yeah, this is like that. I'd never be able to watch/play (ha ha) DDR again if I didn't write this. So here it is.   
(2) O.o How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, if you clicked on "DDR" in my profile, then you either knew what it meant, and wondered what the heck a poor dancer such as myself was doing with those three letters, or you were like "huh? Dark Dark Rain? Double Dark Rocks?" and just clicked out of curiosity. Well, poor soul, you have found your way to a piece known as a FANFICTION! It's about DDR. Ha. Ha. 

**Notes and Schtuff:**   
(1) No, I can't DDR. I have terrible coordination. I can try, but I only embarass myself and my much-better-at-DDRing friends. My fingers are much faster than my feet anyway. -.- Of course, that doesn't help me when playing DanceManiaX any...   
(2) No, I don't own DDR-- any aspect of it. Konami owns DDR, and the individual artists responsible for the songs therein own them. I'm not making a profit off this... if anything, I'm giving MORE money to those companies by buying their games, and dumping token after token into the arcade machines to try and play. Key word being try.   
(3) Yes, I have written fanfiction before, but no, not DDR fanfiction. This is an original piece... it's fictional (duh. Hence the "fiction" part of fanfiction) and absolutely did NOT happen. I'm just sort of setting it where I am, since I know my area best. ^.~   
(4) Yes, I know *some* Japanese. So unless you're a native or have studied Japanese for over 10 years (ooh goody, someone on par with me!) then don't correct me. I may not know kanji all that well, but I know names and phrases like I know the English alphabet. -.- Don't even comment on that last one. 

**Dedicates:** (because I'm a dork)   
Amber (;_; I want her clothes...)   
Onii-chan (Because I *said* so!)   
Sean-no-baka (-.-; Thanks for the tip... I think.)  
Mike (waaaaaaaai! *pounce!*)   
Fred (waai, he has such a nice smile...)  
Joemi (*grin grin*)  
Helen (KAWAII YO!)  
and Will (YOU RULE, DUDE!)

**Going Nuts?  
**I may be going crazy, I may not... but since this is DDR-related, I might as well mention it here: I swear to god that I have heard the UNCENSORED "Whistle Song" (i.e. "Blow My Whistle Bitch") on 7th Mix. Yet all my friends insist that on every DDR machine they play, it's censored, and that cannot be changed. O.o Am I losing it? ^^;;;

**Revision Notes:  
**^^;; *cough* I know I'm not an official DDR player, and you can tell by the little trip-ups I make all the time in here. Thanks to Sean, I have fixed my screw-up with "Pink Dinosaur" as being listed on MAX2, the fact that (apparently) most DDR players in Japan can get 99% on the most difficult songs on "Stealth" mode, and that "MaxX Unlimited" is the only choice for an extra stage (which is only accessible if you AA your final stage on Heavy), while if you AA (or AAA) that, you can get access to "Kakumei." Oh, and just to avoid any further confusion:  
1) The "KonamiLand" I made up that Akio and Kumiko went to is supposed to be this huge arcade that has ALL sorts of games, but mostly Bemani. I heard from Sean no Baka that Konami only makes 1000 of every DDR Mix, then stops. So there's at least .2% of all DDR 7th Mix Machines here in SF! I figrue that since DDR machines are so costly to maintain, that even if Japan has the bulk of them, there are still a lot in the U.S. and still more in the other Asian countries, like Korea, China, Taiwan, etc. 1000 is actually quite a lot, if you think about it...  
2) DDR EX ("8rd" mix!) removes the "MaxX Unlimited only" option for your extra stage. I'm not sure about the "one more extra stage" being "Kakumei" only yet (though it's probably safe to assume that they'll use another song. The new MaxX, "The Legend of Max" is supposed to replace the other MaxXs as "the hardest song ever," though rumor has it that someone AA'd it on his second try when he went to the Konami Test location.... -.-; *coughcough*nolives!*coughcough* ^^;;; No.Offense.Intended.

Anything else I'm forgetting? Do let me know... it helps me out a LOT!

**Legend:  
**"spoken word"  
_thoughts  
**emphasized stuff  
**_[Japanese language, translated]_ _   


* * *

**What happened last time:**

Our main character, Alexa Dirson, is your not-so-average teenage girl --she's got crushes, talks to herself, and oh yeah, has the spirit of a dead Japanese DDR expert inside her head! Between figuring this new mess out and trying not to DDR in front of the one guy she likes, Alexa's got her hands pretty full. Of course, she doesn't know that the spirit inside her head has an ex... that's watching her every DDR move!

* * *

"W...wow, Al... that was really good!" Andrea stumbled over the words, while her friend tripped off the DDR 7th mix machine, nearly colliding face-first with a nearby water-ski simulator game. Luckily, Matt leaned over from where he was sitting on the _Gauntlet Legends_ machine, and caught her. The two stared at each other, nearly nose to nose for a moment, before Alexa's face flamed bright red, and she hastily backed away, nearly ramming herself into someone focused entirely on a solo game of _Marvel Vs. Capcom_ _2_. 

"I uh... don't know what came over me. Musta been dumb luck or something... hehe..." Alexa scratched behind her ear nervously. Both Matt and Andrea were still gaping at her. True, she hadn't scored high enough to rank or anything like that, but a AA for Alexa was still quite the accomplishment. Still, it hadn't felt right... stepping off the stage like that. It was like she'd only been half there... 

_Or something..._ Alexa thought to herself, brow furrowing. Everything was all hot and dizzy around her, and she wanted nothing more than to escape the humid back area of the arcade and dash into the bathroom. 

"Well I... uh, I think I here Vic calling! I better go!" And without another word, Alexa hastily jumped around the Marvel Vs. Capcom player, only to ram face first into an Asian girl just a few feet away. Had she been watching...?

"I'm so sorry! Oh geez, I'm such a klutz... uh, really, sorry..."

"..." The girl was silent a moment, and Alexa gulped, wondering if she was goint to get yelled at.

_I'd deserve it... god, I'm such a klutz..._

Never more than at that particular moment had Alexa wanted to cry more. She stood still, trembling ever so slightly, awaiting the harsh insults of a total stranger. 

"It is okay," The girl finally responded in a soft, yet accented voice. Alexa finally brought the courage forth to look up, and when she did, her entire world wavered around her-- then everything went black.

* * *

**_Three Months Ago..._**

"[But I thought you wanted to get all perfects!]" Kumiko Nikado asked her friend Akio Kataoka, confusion evident in her voice. She walked down the street in the early evening with him, towards her house, where they were to study for the upcoming English exam. 

"[Well now _everyone_ is doing that. I get so sick of everyone playing the same three songs over and over. It's like a AA or AAA on Heavy isn't enough, they need to get an extra stage and AA that, too!]" Akio grumbled. They'd just come from the KonamiLand arcade, and after playing some rather standard, non-Bemani games, had finally gotten their -or rather, Akio's- turn on one of the 7th Mix machines. The mix itself wasn't new, considering how long 7th mix had been out already, but KonamiLand was constantly getting machines that other arcades could no longer afford to maintain, hoping to attract Bemani fans from around the metropolitan area. With millions of commuters every day, and nearly as many high school students in the area, it was no difficulty at all.

In any case, Akio had quickly gotten tired of waiting --and observing how nearly every player before him was so desperate to get a perfect score that they always played the same songs, hoping to one-up the person ahead of them. With the most difficult songs on their playlist, and options like "Stealth" activated from the Options Menu, Akio explained, they'd look good even if they scored in the low 96-99%. Kumiko's mind was boggled that anything below that was considered poor-- though she'd never tried DDR herself, putting so much effort into a game seemed awfully far-fetched to the girl. 

_Still... everyone has their passions. Just like I excel in academics, these people love to dance... if you can call that elephant stomping 'dancing.' _Kumiko chuckled to herself, remembering the term that Akio had applied to it after seeing a particularly heavy-set classmate DDR to "Max 300" 3 times in a row, and then finish off his turn with the only selection for his extra stage, "MaxX Unlimited." The boy had been stomping so hard that the couple had heard it from across the arcade-- and had the misfortune to be right after him, when the DDR stage was dripping from his sweat. Thankfully, he hadn't AA'd "MaxX Unlimited, or the heavy-set boy would have continued right on to plauy "Kakumei" and made the DDR stage a miniature pool. 

As a result, Akio had tripped midway through "Stay," in front of a large crowd of his classmates. However, he'd quickly made up for it-- sliding on the pad and hitting the necessary arrows with his hands. The audience had murmured in astonished surprised-- what did he think he was doing? Only those gaijin tourists --self-called 'freestylers'-- did anything like that!

And yet somehow, after accidentally incorporating hand plants and a few scattered knee drops, Akio walked away from the dance stage with a AA. It was slightly below his usual par, but considering he didn't stomp and trash the pads as many of the desperate-to-get-perfect players did, it was quite the achievement. More than that, he'd won the attention of many people who had never seen someone doing any sort of a _unique_ performance on the DDR machine. 

Kumiko had become enthralled --Akio was having fun, and she was too-- Akio was a wild card now, and she was helping him, not just with class assignments now, but new "freestyle" moves that would wow the steadily-growing audience at KonamiLand whenever Akio appeared. Still, Kumiko longed for a weekend when DDR wouldn't be the sole focus of their time together-- Akio had plenty of other friends who liked to DDR, and it wasn't as if they'd **_shunned_** him for starting to get less than perfect, just for being original. 

_Akio..._

"[Hey, Kumiko! Earth to Kumiko!]"

"[Huh?]" Kumiko snapped back to reality as she and Akio arrived at her house. So lost in memories had she been that she hardly noticed their 20-minute walk had come to a close.

Akio laughed, a rich tenor laugh that caused the young girl to blush scarlet. Upon seeing her crimson face, Akio laughed even more, jovially placing an arm around Kumiko's shoulder and walking inside with her. 

"[I'm home!]" Kumiko called as she came home, slipping her shoes off her feet. Akio did the same, leaving his nearly-worn sneakers facing inward, implying that he was a guest. He looked up curiously when no one responded to Kumiko's hail, wondering where Kumiko's mother was. Normally, the Nikado matriarch was home all day, and by the time the two of them came over to study, she had snacks all ready and waiting for them. 

Since Akio's mother had died when he was born, he'd never had the kind of motherly attention that Kumiko's mother was so ready and willing to offer. It was... nice.

"[Hm, that's odd. Mama's usually home... Oh.]" Kumiko picked up a note and read, a smile blossoming on her face as she read the letter aloud. 

"['Dear Kumiko, Well, it's finally our anniversary weekend! Papa and I are going away to the hot springs in Mie for the weekend, and we should return by late Sunday evening. Be sure to complete all your homework for school on Saturday, and don't forget to help Akio-kun with his English. Good luck! Oh, and there's dinner for the next three nights in the fridge. Love, Mama and Papa.']"

"[Away for the weekend, eh?]" Akio smirked, turning to Kumiko. She stared back at him in surprise, one eyebrow cocked up in questioning. When she got his drift, she blushed scarlet, and yelped when he advanced towards her, making to tickle her. 

"[Come back here Nikado, I'm not through with you yet!]" And so Akio chased Kumiko upstairs, laughing all the while. 

**_Later..._**

"[We haven't gotten any studying done.]" Kumiko sighed, spent from all the chasing around and laughing she and Akio had done. It was different, that was for sure. Never had she had so much... fun! It was one thing to be happy to spend time with him --at school, and going with him nearly every afternoon to KonamiLand... but... this...

"[Can you really say you minded skipping it this once?]" Akio finally murmured, lying beside her on the floor. The two of them had gotten into an enormous pillow fight, and when one of the pillows actually exploded in a flurry of down feathers, they'd started sneezing, and collapsed onto the floor in fits of laughter. 

"[No... I'm glad I finally took a break from studying. I'm sick of people always calling me the book worm.]" Kumiko frowned. She was never the most popular girl in school, in direct contrast to Akio. It was funny how fate worked out things like that. 

"[Nah, not a book worm. Not unless book worms are cute nowadays.]" Akio smiled, propping his head up on his hand, resting his elbow on one of the de-feathered pillows at their side. Kumiko glanced out of the corner of her eye at him, blushing when she saw his disarming smile. 

Silence filled the air for a few moments, emphasizing just how alone the two were in the Nikado family house. What was more, they were alone in Kumiko's bedroom. There was a certain tension humming in the air, begging to be set free, to be broken somehow. Yet neither of the teens knew completely how to go about it.

Akio finally worked up the nerve to break the tension, in the most unexpected of ways-- without a single word of advance notice, he leaned over Kumiko and kissed her firmly on the lips, his hand still propping up his head just above hers. Hardly intrusive, gentle lips caressed hers, slowly becoming more eager as Kumiko, in all her embarassment, gave way to the feelings she'd harbored for Akio for so long. 

_At last..._

* * *

**_Back at the arcade..._**

"Hey! Hey, Alexa, snap out of it!" 

"Ugh?" Alexa groaned as she sat up, her head throbbing as if someone had slammed a gong against it quite soundly.

What had happened? She remembered DDRing... and feeling sort of displaced from the rest of the world. Then, there... 

_I... I think I bumped into someone. Some... some girl. And I fainted? What the heck...?_

Alexa looked around her confused. The only faces she met were those of her friends-- Matt was hovering over her, sitting on his haunches with a worried expression creasing his features. Andrea stood next to him, holding a wet paper towel, while Vic was behind her, and Jason was standing behind him, hands in his pockets and trying not to look upset by Matt's closeness. 

"Isn't Prince Charmin' supposed to _kiss_ his Cinderella awake?" Alexa murmured, sitting up. Matt immediately leaned forward to support her back with his hand, and Alexa saw that nearly all her friends were nearby, looking various levels of confused, perplexed, or worried. 

"You really must have your wires crossed, Al! Prince Charmin' kisses Snow White awake... not Cinderella!" Andrea laughed, kneeling down to wipe the brow of her friend. 

"What... happened?" 

"Heck if we know," Matthew started, a grim expression donning his face, "One minute you were DDRing like a pro and trying to be humble about it, next minute you were on the floor." 

"Yeah... and that girl we saw... she just split when you fainted." Andrea finished, looking out towards the pier. Wherever that girl was, she wasn't in sight. With Alexa's reaction to the name 'Akio Kataoka' earlier, and now this, Andrea was getting worried. 

_What's going on here? What's up with Al... and who was that girl?_

One mystery after another... and they were no closer to solving anything.

* * *

**_Outside..._**

_What... what _ **_was_**_ that?_ Kumiko thought to herself, sucking in a breath. The moment the young girl's eyes had met hers, truly one-on-one, Kumiko felt as though she was staring straight at... straight at...

_Akio..._

But it couldn't be! Akio was dead! Why couldn't she just... forget? Why was a someone here in San Francisco, 3000 miles away... a **_girl_** no less, reminding Kumiko of her deceased lover? Why was her heart being continually plagued by regrets...?

Pressing a hand to her rapidly pulsing heart, Kumiko left the nook between the arcade and the small cafe next door, quickly weaving through the evening crowds out to the boardwalk, and away from the Pier Side Arcade. 

_I don't know what's happening, Akio... why you keep haunting me. I wish I could say sorry... but it's time for me to move on._

* * *

**End of Part 4!**   
Okay, I know these parts are short... and they're not much for cliffhangers! -.-; I also have to work in the DDR a bit more. This chapter was quite TWAFFY, if I do say so myself... Let me know what you think!

Oh, and Sean... happy now? I made it so that it makes _sense_ that Alexa uses freestyle moves, even if she's "inhabited" by Akio! By the way, he'll be making an appearance soon, along with more of Alexa's friends. 

Look forward to it! 


	5. Akio's Awakening

Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?   
Part 5: Akio's Awakening  
Version 0.1  
A _Dance Dance Revolution_ Fanfiction   
By: Azurite (but people call me Andi, Akachan, Mer, and Baka)   
http://azurite.rosedreams.org 

Well, if you've gotten this far, then you are no doubt wondering one of these things:   
(1) WHAAAT?! Andi wrote a DDR fic!? What about all her *other* unfinished fics? Well you know the story about the thing that never goes away? Ever? Yeah, this is like that. I'd never be able to watch/play (ha ha) DDR again if I didn't write this. So here it is.   
(2) O.o How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, if you clicked on "DDR" in my profile, then you either knew what it meant, and wondered what the heck a poor dancer such as myself was doing with those three letters, or you were like "huh? Dark Dark Rain? Double Dark Rocks?" and just clicked out of curiosity. Well, poor soul, you have found your way to a piece known as a FANFICTION! It's about DDR. Ha. Ha. 

**Notes and Schtuff:**   
(1) No, I can't DDR. I have terrible coordination. I can try, but I only embarass myself and my much-better-at-DDRing friends. My fingers are much faster than my feet anyway. -.- Of course, that doesn't help me when playing DanceManiaX any...   
(2) No, I don't own DDR-- any aspect of it. Konami owns DDR, and the individual artists responsible for the songs therein own them. I'm not making a profit off this... if anything, I'm giving MORE money to those companies by buying their games, and dumping token after token into the arcade machines to try and play. Key word being try.   
(3) Yes, I have written fanfiction before, but no, not DDR fanfiction. This is an original piece... it's fictional (duh. Hence the "fiction" part of fanfiction) and absolutely did NOT happen. I'm just sort of setting it where I am, since I know my area best. ^.~   
(4) Yes, I know *some* Japanese. So unless you're a native or have studied Japanese for over 10 years (ooh goody, someone on par with me!) then don't correct me. I may not know kanji all that well, but I know names and phrases like I know the English alphabet. -.- Don't even comment on that last one. 

**Dedicates:** (because I'm a dork)   
Amber (GRRL POWER!)   
Oni~i-chan (*bounce bounce*)   
Sean (Youse got some CRAZY edits, man…)  
Mike (waaaaaaaai! *pounce!*)   
Fred (d00d, j00r $k!llz are l33t!)  
Joemi (WE WILL DUEL AGAIN!)  
Helen (KAWAII YO!)  
and Will (YOU RULE, DUDE!)

**Going Nuts?  
**I may be going crazy, I may not... but since this is DDR-related, I might as well mention it here: I swear to god that I have heard the UNCENSORED "Whistle Song" (i.e. "Blow My Whistle Bitch") on 7th Mix. Yet all my friends insist that on every DDR machine they play, it's censored, and that cannot be changed. O.o Am I losing it? ^^;;;

Well, welcome welcome welcome to Part 5 of my DDR fanfiction, "Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?" Haha, it's been a while… and I wish I could say I have an excuse or three thousand, but naaah, I really don't, not when it comes to my fanfiction. I'm totally ecstatic that GHWAY has gotten such good feedback… and I hope to get more, too, now that the plot's finally going somewhere. Of course, my weak point in all this is making sure it stays a DDR fanfiction, and not just your run-amok Original Fanfiction… ^^;; hehe… 

Here we go!

_I don't remember much of anything. _

_Not how it happened, anyway. Wouldn't that be terrible though? If you were trapped on Earth, the memories of your death haunting you… and those you loved? _

_You could never move on._

Akio Kataoka, age 18. Pronounced dead on September 13th, 2002, at 2:57am, at Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital, Shinjuku Branch. Victim of a hit-and-run accident. No suspects at this time, or any reported witnesses. Body discovered by Shinjuku Sanitation Department employees as they were on their rounds.

What a way to go. 

Akio Kataoka had never been a fatalist—not in the strictest sense of the word, anyway. Fatalists were people that believed that their destiny was preoredained… that everything that happened to them, good, bad or ugly, was MEANT to happen. That some all-powerful, all-knowing being out in the far reaches of heaven said "You must get an 30% on your test today," or "You must come in 4th place in the All-City track meet." Fate just worked out like that… right?

Yet somehow, even while believing in "destiny," Akio never let it control him. He was too wild, too much of a free spirit. Perhaps that had caused his downfall. 

**September 13th, 2002****: ****7:57 PM******

"Akio… are we going to KonamiLand _again?" Kumiko asked, trying to disguise the distaste in her voice. It wasn't that she didn't like the place… and it certainly wasn't that she'd gotten tired of Akio's company. Quite the opposite, actually—she wanted to spend more time with him. Tonight, more than ever, since it was finally their anniversary… _

_Three whole months together… does he even know?_

Kumiko cast a saddened glance at Akio, who seemed more absorbed in his latest issue of DanceEX than he did in her. He had one arm hanging from the subway's rung, the other precariously balancing the binding of the thick, glossy zine in his other hand. His nose was so close to the fine print that it almost looked as though he was sleeping between the pages… not paying an ounce of attention to his girlfriend.

Kumiko sighed. It had been this way for the past few weeks now. She was getting tired of it. Sadly, Kumiko's near-fairy tale romance had deteriorated into this… this strangeness. All they ever did was talk on the phone, chat online, and meet every day after school. Most evenings, they went to KonamiLand afterwards. Their study dates, once a romantic endeavor when their relationship first officially "started" became nothing more than an excuse for Akio to mooch free food of the Nikados. 

It wasn't that Akio was selfish… but as of late, his attention had been elsewhere. Suffice it to say, Kumiko was worried. Or at least, she'd started out worried. Then she became irritated, pensive, and then jealous. Anger followed not long after, and it was a vain attempt to supress this anger that led Kumiko to keep agreeing to going out on these "dates." 

She was still half-hoping, she supposed, that all of Akio's ignorance had been just a façade, and that tonight things would be different. Yet Akio was dressed the same as he always was, brought the same amount of cash he always did, and hadn't said anything along the lines of "Happy Anniversary" to her.

And it hurt like hell.

The subway train jerked forward, the sound of metal screeching against metal ringing loudly in the two teenager's ears. The sudden stop of the train caused Akio to lose his grip on the rubber hand rung, and he fell forward, collapsing onto Kumiko. She blushed crimson from underneath him a moment, half expecting their eyes to meet and him simply to kiss her… 

"Suman." Akio apologized gruffly, standing up. He barely offered a hand to Kumiko when she struggled to stand--** instead, she sat sitting on the carpeted floor of the train for what felt like an eternity longer, the gentle tick-ticking of her own watch thrumming in her ears. What… had just happened? **

_What happened to you, Akio? What changed?_

"This is just too weird, don't you think?" Andrea mumbled to those present. After the odd incident with Alexa and the mysterious Asian girl from earlier, everyone was musing about Alexa's recent bouts with fainting spells. 

"Maybe she's just a little traumatized from the accident… more than she's letting on," Whitney suggested, running a hand through his brown-and-blonde-streaked hair. 

"Aw, come on, this is Alexa… she's a total trooper. Although, if *I'd* been hit by a motorcycle flying at me at 70-odd miles per hour, I'd be a bit traumatized too…" Gabrielle chimed in, sucking on a lollipop. She pulled the oversized watermelon-flavored candy from her mouth, her expression melting into one of thoughtfulness for a second.

"Though An, didn't you say that she was totally freaked out by some picture you had? Of some guy?"

At the mention of "some guy," both Matt and Jason twitched, though neither said anything. Vic and Scott both exchanged 'a glance,' but they too kept silent.

"Uh… yeah. I showed her some article from DDRNews,  and she went totally white—" Andrea paused a moment to laugh, "I mean whiter than she already is!" She joked, and those present winced in suppressed agreement. 

"So what did this article say exactly? Did Al know the guy, maybe?" Scott mused, rubbing two fingers against his chin. His pose was almost that of a philosopher, though with a poufy yellow-and-navy jacket on, it made Scott looked more like a shrunken pansy than Aristotle.

"…Maybe. The guy was some 'Akio Kataoka.' He died in some freak accident… a hit-and-run, just about two weeks before Alexa's own accident." 

"Weird," Jeremy mused. "Haha, maybe she's being haunted!" In response to the flimsy joke, Jeremy received a round of deadpan stares.

"WHAT?" He groaned, shaking his head. "Geez guys, grow a sense of humor."

Unfortunately, no one in Andrea's party realized just how right Jeremy was.

_Where am I? Oh no… not this place again! It's so cold… and lonely… Matt… Andrea… someone… anyone?_

It was as if a thick fog had swallowed her whole again, encompassing her entire body in its thick murkiness. She was trapped, relying soley on her tactile skills to weave her way out of this mystery place. She'd been in here once before, she knew… but it had seemed so long ago.

At least then, there had been some light, some sense of hope in the not-so-distant future… where was that now? What _was this place?_

It seemed like an eternity that Alexa wandered in the mysterious dark, damp, and fog-shrouded realm. All at once, everything and nothing was familiar, like some half-remembered dream. Alexa's thoughts seemed to echo off unseen walls, bouncing back distorted, childish and weak.

Her legs growing tired, Alexa decided to flop down and rest—maybe just stop and think for a moment—totally unaware that a cool stone bench had formed right underneath her. In fact, everywhere she walked, everything she touched slowly grew form and shape, the fog pulling away until she was left waiting for something –or someone- in a nondescript little gazebo surrounded by dark bushes and the slight bubbling of a nearby creek.

*sigh* 

Alexa looked up, feeling utterly hopeless and lost. This was her greatest fear, reliving itself in her mind, over and over again. She was alone. Completely, totally alone.

When she looked up from her hands and began to notice the world that had formed around her, a patch of fog seemed to take shape in front of her eyes. For good measure, Alexa rubbed her eyes—once, then twice. The first time, the mist seemed to coalesce from nothing, grayness merging into grayness. Then, it blurred more upon rubbing her eyes again, and this time, the grayness faded away, blots of shapes and colors becoming apparent. In disbelief, Alexa watched as a boy –a boy whose face she knew all too well—formed from the darkness.

"Akio…"

"You again!" Akio murmured, his form finally solid. He strode over towards Alexa purposefully, but stopped –almost abruptly—a good meter away from her. There he stood, almost inspecting her with a critical eye, scanning her for some mistake or flaw in her appearance. 

"Your voice is familiar but… I've never seen you before in my life." Akio said in a matter-of-fact tone. Then he smacked his hand to his head, shaking it and mumbling something incoherent between his fingers.

"W-What? I didn't say anything? What do you mean? Stop shaking your head like that!" Alexa's voice trembled as she tried to stand up. This wasn't possible. This had to be some warped, twisted dream. Indeed, she'd hit her head harder than she thought all those times she fainted… and all this was some nasty, terrible side effect that came from the accident that she couldn't remember.

Surely it could be solved with a mere dose of acetametaphin.

"Of course I've never seen you before in my life," Akio began, shaking his head again wryly, but at least this time, meeting Alexa's terrified gaze, "I'm DEAD."

_Now would be the perfect time to faint, Dirson! Alexa told herself, gulping involuntarily. Dead? But if he was here, and she was here, and all this was so strange…_

"But I—I'm not…!" Alexa began to protest, her face growing flushed. She just COULDN'T be dead! Even if so many bad things happened –no matter how many times Mom yelled at her, pressured her, or how many stupid math tests she failed… no matter how many fights that her friends got into, or how many times Alexa was unsure of her own heart… -- everything always fell into place. Things always, somehow, someway, turned out right… eventually. 

"No," Akio clicked his tongue against the side of his cheek, "I don't think you are. The last time I remember your voice, it was when you were… almost inside my head. Like I could hear you speaking to me, but you weren't really there. And then, I found myself staring at a reflection that wasn't my own." 

"…and it was as if the voice you heard wasn't meant to sound the way it was…" Alexa murmured, recalling how she knew—just KNEW—that she wasn't supposed to understand Akio so clearly. After all, Andrea's article clearly stated that he'd been a Japanese high-schooler, an outstanding DDR player, and…

"So what then? Why am I here… with you?"

"…" Alexa didn't have an answer. Instead, her mind kept conjuring up the face of the young woman from the Pier Side arcade earlier that night. If it even was the same night. Regardless… there had been shock, joy, and then abrupt sadness reflected in that girl's depthless brown eyes. And on the edges of her memory, Alexa almost heard a name whispered…

"Kumiko…" 

"What did you just say?" Akio uttered, his jaw hanging open. His expression was not one of shock, more like stunned surprise, if anything. His brows were furrowed, his muscles tense and his face grim—the name meant something to him.

"That girl… from the arcade earlier. It was almost like… almost like she _recognized me!" _

"Kumiko… she's here… I mean… just where the hell are we, anyway?" Akio muttered, settling down on the cool stone bench beside Alexa. 

"Your guess is as good as mine, sugar," Alexa sighed in resignment. She didn't understand any of this. She vaguely remembered hearing Akio's voice in her head—being surprised, for lack of a better word, at seeing his face and obituary printed on a sheet of paper that her friend had… and now… 

"I guess we're stuck together for the time being then. I feel like I've been asleep for a long time… and now I've just woken up. Like I have a lot to do…" 

"Unfinished business." Alexa stated softly. Akio turned to her, an eyebrow raised in questioning.

"You're stuck here because you have something –or someone- holding you back from moving on. I don't know why that links you to me, but… if I'm going to be stuck with some DDR champion's mind in my head, then I guess I have no choice but to help." Alexa quirked a grin at the last moment, trying to make light of a situation that seemed all too surreal. 

Akio laughed, a wonderful, cheering laugh. A painful sting reminded Alexa of Matt, Whitney, Vic, Scott, Jason, and Jeremy. All the other guys she knew –true friends of hers that she cherished. Would she ever see them again? What about her other dear friends, like Gabrielle and Andrea? 

"You'll see them again, don't worry," Akio reassured her, placing an unusually warm hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"How…did you…?" Alexa stared up at the handsome Japanese boy in wonder, her green eyes meeting his chocolate brown ones. 

"Not sure. Maybe I can read your mind!" Akio laughed, tapping a finger to Alexa's brow. He stood up and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the bench, away from the gazebo, the bushes, and the bubbling of the creek. 

"Come on," he said, stepping forward into the endless night, "We have a lot to do." 

^^;; Okay, this just got TONS more surreal. This is really only a beta version of this part… I may post a different part completely when I get the chance… Not sure. I really wanted to bring Akio into the action, as he's a vital part later on. 

This is supernatural, romance, AND mystery, people! Get ready for the suspense! The action! The drama! (I'll try!)

REVIEW, please, and help me improve!

~Azurite


End file.
